OurWinnipeg is the new official plan that will guide change in our city over the next 25 years. OurWinnipeg is accompanied by a detailed land-use and development plan (bylaw), entitled the Complete Communities Direction Strategy. OurWinnipeg and the Complete Communities Direction Strategy were adopted by city council on July 20 and took effect on August 17, replacing the previous Plan Winnipeg.

OurWinnipeg was created over the past two years with the input of more than 42,000 Winnipeggers through the award-winning SpeakUpWinnipeg public engagement process. In this process, Winnipeggers participated through online blogs and through lively face-to-face group discussions.

A street team was sent out to talk with Winnipeggers at malls, parks, libraries and sporting events in their neighbourhoods. Winnipeggers were provided with video cameras to record their stories and wishes for the future, children were invited to use clay to model their ideas, and thousands participated in open houses, meetings, and events.

Not only did SpeakUpWinnipeg break new ground for the city, but so has the OurWinnipeg plan. Never before has the city created an official plan that places so much emphasis on sustainable growth and change.

Over the next few months, the city’s Planning and Land Use Division will be providing a series of short articles for the Professionally Speaking column in the WREN to help you learn more about OurWinnipeg and the Complete Communities Direction Strategy. Each article will focus on a different part of the urban structure, which is the city’s new framework for accommodating growth in different parts of the city. The series will include:

•Downtown

•Centres, corridors and major redevelopment sites

•New communities

•Employment areas

•Areas of stability

Visit speakupwinnipeg.com. And while you’re there, check out OurWinnipeg in Action, a new online, interactive map tool that helps you learn about the urban structure and innovative projects taking place in different parts of it.

— provided by Planning and Land Use Division, City of Winnipeg Planning, Property and Development Department.